Pre 1950s rides of LFGSS: old bikes, vintage rats, classic lightweights

So I have fitted my Strata brake brake set and it's only now that I notice,; one lever has a (quick release?) slit and the other doesn't. Does anyone know if this is correct or not. If it is which side should it be on. Or could they from different years? There is very limited info anywhere on this brand.

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Looking at @SideshowBob 's new Ephgrave thread has me thinking that we should have a ride where we visit the sites of old builders/shops etc in spring. Give us a bit of time to compile a list of shops etc. Has the forum had a ride like this before and would anyone be interested or is it a shit idea?
Ie visit the site of where the original Hobbs site was in the Barbican, Youngs of Lewisham etc

Sounds like a great idea.
Here's some ideas for the tour -

Ephgrave -
150 Upper Clapton Road,E5.

Hetchins -
798/800 Seven Sisters Rd, N15.

Gillott -
177/181 Southampton Way, SE5.

Hobbs of Barbican -
34 Barbican.

Claud Butler -
Manor St Works, Clapham, SW4.

Youngs of Lewisham -
248a Lee High Road, Lewisham & 290 Lee High Road.

Now that's the spirit.
Also Witcomb, 25 Tanners Hill, Deptford.
Selbach 337 Kennington Road, London, SE11.
Paris
Condor

Holdsworth, Lower Richmond Road, Putney

No idea, sorry

The Grand Tour, I'm in.

Holdsworth's in Penge High Street. I can show the 3 different locations up and down that road from 1960-80's. Also their factory who were the first importers of Campagnolo into the UK. Hallowed ground !!!

Allin's of Croydon.

No problem @anidel.
Granby, new cross gate
Excel, Woolwich new road
Chas F Hill, Old Kent road.

I have an R O Harrison - 23 Queens Rd, Peckham
and a Maclean - 362 Upper St, Islington

E F Russ were on Battersea Rise I think.

Edit: No. 99 according to Classic Rendevous but I work with his grandson so I can check.

This is gonna be quite a long ride :)

Ephgrave -
150 Upper Clapton Road,E5.

As I said in the other thread, that building is long gone. It was where this house now stands:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.5644419,-0.0596406,3a,75y,52.73h,92.35t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s5hCwvXKyeG6sgkuCB3VprA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

(The next house along is No. 152.)

Claud Butler started off at 8 Lavender Road, Clapham Junction. Seems Levi Roots ran the Papine Jerk centre from the very same site.

Having sold my Witcomb a few years back, I don't have an old bike I'd use regularly anymore (only my 1930s Parisian "Fisher", and my 1950/60s Holdsworth -possibly fake one anyway- which are both at my parents in France). I'll definitely want another project in the next couple of years. But something is always at the back of my mind with these old steel tubes... When will they fail and kill you? My paranoia comes from the above mentioned Holdsworth, and its down tube snapping (around shifter area, typical), a long time ago while riding it. Luckily it was at very slow speed, I didn't fall, the frame didn't completely collapsed, and Winston via Mario put a new tube on (it was when Mario expressed doubts on the Holdsworth pedigree of the frame). The day before I was bombing downhill with that bike, in heavy traffic, had the frame snapped then it would have been catastrophic. The misadventure didn't stop me from riding old bikes over the years (1960s Witconb, 1930s Sun tandem, 1970s Mercian and Mercier, all ridden without problems and sold to finance different projects), but every time I consider starting another project (looking at the cool eBay links posted here) a part of me is worried about this... as I would refurbish a bike to ride it, not hang on the wall...
How are you guys dealing/denying/managing that old steel inherent factor, as it's hard to track how a bike was taken care of in the past half century, regardless of the original quality of the build and tubing? Oh and I weigh 95kg... probably doesn't help...

denying

^ this :)
I'm going to take my Selbach tricye to Vaz to get the new rear cog brazed in the diff. Didn't realise he is in Hither Green!
That's Bowman and Vaz. A modern hot-spot of bike activity!

Je son's were also in white church rd, the same as Allin, so we'd have to pop in there!

In for a ride, sounds brilliant.

Tubes don’t fail suddenly, they will always fatigue fracture so you’ll get notice as long as you’re aware and keeping an eye. A key thing you can do is avoid bikes with short head tubes because the bending load on the downtube is far reduced with a longer head tube.

Tubes don’t fail suddenly

The downtube of my Holdsworth definitely did. Was completely unannounced, nothing visually or audibly giving warning. I have the picture somewhere. Clean snap, not hidden under the shifter's collar, but beyond. There was hardly any rust inside the tube... The head tube isn't short either, frame is a 59cm ctc.
I'm not saying it always happens like this though...

EG Bates was down the road from me in Plaistow, and I think Leach Marathon where up in Stratford somewhere. All my bikes are from Nottingham/Nottinghamshire though (Raleigh, Carlton, Paragon,) which might be a bit of a detour too far! Other than that I'm in.

If you look at my post #19 in this thread you will see another old and broken frame.

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/246092/#comment14256079

Since writing the description of this failure I've heard that breakages at this point are not that rare when the bottom head lug has a straight edge (as this one did) where the down tube goes into the lug.

I'm reluctant to believe that old frames are a serious health hazard - even though I have suffered another potentially more dangerous breakage. Cycling is always going to be a bit risky, but the most serious danger by far comes from motorised road users. Although old frames do fail occasionally, so do new ones. The worst injury I've heard of was caused by a broken handlebar stem, but that was relatively new.

I think the most important component to check are the forks, anything even slightly suspicious and they should not be used.

BTW I am touching wood as I write this!

Soz I went quiet, weekend ran away from me.

No sweat about beer. Will pm you to arrange a day.

B

Revisiting what actually happened to me, and to the contrary to what I replied to @Jonny69 , there might have been pre announcing signs, audible squeaks, but that could have been anything... I thought retrospectively at the time they could have been related to the tube breaking, at least that what I wrote on the forum back then... Had forgotten that...

there might have been pre announcing signs, audible squeaks, but that could have been anything...

Haha, yeah, that's exactly what happened to my Bob Jackson and my reaction was exactly the same! I reckon second time round we recognise that sound!

Sweet Christ!. My Carlton Flyer commuter which is in what you could politely call rather ratty condition squeaks all the time. Will have to lay of the pies and beer.....

You gonna die m8!